Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/111

Rh as well as other ornaments. Just lately, also, a Jew has bequeathed by will a large sum of money to this church. They are at the present time busied in setting up the portraits of the popes, which, executed in mosaic, will encircle the church as with a vast papal ring. Not one of the crowned fathers, from Gregory the Great down to Pio Nino, is to be omitted, even though they must improvise now and then a papal head. There are still empty spaces in the circle of medallions for the various portraits which cannot as yet be found.

Not far from the chancel is a beautiful chapel, dedicated to Saint Brigitta, and ornamented by her statue in marble. During her residence in Rome, she frequently came to pray in this church, and here is preserved, as a holy relic, the cross from which, during her ecstatic devotion, she seemed to hear a voice proceed. I was glad to hear that she exercised a reformatory influence as well upon the higher class of the priesthood in Rome as in Naples. For she did not alone satisfy herself with praying at the graves of the martyrs; she earnestly exhorted bishops and cardinals, nay, even the Pope himself, to a life of the true worship of God, and of good works, from which they had almost universally fallen, to devote themselves to worldly ambition. She awoke the consciences of many, as well by her prayers and remonstrances, as by her example. For she herself, of a rich and noble race, that of Brahe, one of the noblest in Sweden, yet lived there in Rome, and labored like a truly humble servant of Christ.

“We must walk barefoot against pride, if we would